Ahanix Platinum XP case review

If your building a new system or building your first system, and your on a buget then the Ahanix Platinum XP case should definitely be taken under consideration. This case comes packed with a lot of cool features, at a reasonable price. Some of the features include, built-in stealth cdrom covers (makes it so that your beige cdrom doesn't have to be seen), built in digital temperature display, awesome gray & silver metalic paint scheme, and built in usb & firewire ports in the front side of the case.

Features

4 x 5.25" external drive Bays

3 x 3.5" Internal drive bays

1 x 3.5" External accessible drive bay

Built in (2) USB & (1) Firewire ports in front side of case

(2) 80mm case fans. One in front and one in back

Built in digital temperature display

Closer look

The front of the case is where this case has most of its features. The first thing I noticed was the digital temperature display. This is a cool feature to have, and it actually saves you money by not having to buy one to put in your 5.25" drive bay. Plus, you don't have to use a 5.25" drive bay :) It has three buttons around the digital temperature display. The power button, the turbo button, and the reset button. We all know what the power button and reset button do, but what about the turbo button? "I remember these! I had one of these on my old 486 computer!" No, its not the same :) Instead of increasing your FSB (back in the old days), this turbo button turns your two case fans on and off. Lets say you have been gaming and you are about to go to bed and need your computer quieter, just hit the turbo button to turn the fans off and you can sleep without any noise! (Except for the cpu fan) I really like the silver metalic hitech look of the paint! Also notice the two CD-ROM covers at the top :) I'll show you these later on in the review!

On the right side of the case toward the bottom, you will find the two usb and one firewire ports. Most all case manufactures are adding these to their cases. It's pretty much a standard feature these days. These ports are good for digital cameras, webcams, camcorders, joysticks, ect.. It just makes it easier than reaching behind your computer and trying to find these ports.

The two side panels of the case are standard, but not the standard beige color. They both have a little grip towards the back of the panel, so that you can have something to hold on to when sliding the panels off.

There isn't really anything special about the back of the case. It has no slideout motherboard tray, which is a negative. It does have a 80mm case fan, and the fan cover has some large holes to increase air flow. However, they should do away with that and install a chrome fan grill (they allow air to flow more freely). You can see that both side panels have thumbscrews and that allows you to open you case without any tools.

As I said earlier, I would show you the CD-ROM covers. Well, here they are and also how they work! If you can't tell by the picture then I will explain. Everytime you buy a cool looking computer case (that isn't beige), you install your CD-ROM, DVD, or CD-RW and the beige on the drive sticks out like a sore thumb and it looks really bad. Well, on the Platinum XP case they have included two stealth CD-ROM covers that cover up your CD-ROM. The stealth covers have a button for the eject and has a little clear see through slot so you can see the lights. You simply install your CD-ROM like you usually do, but don't remove the front case cover. Just make sure the CD-ROM makes good contact with the cover, so that the eject button touches the eject button on your CD-ROM. I think this is a VERY cool idea! I look for other case manufactures to start making these very soon.

On the inside of the case I found all the edges to be rounded to prevent from slicing your fingers when working on the case. However, it isn't 100% rounded. I found a lot of the corners to be sharp. The 3.5" drive bays are removable, but they don't have thumbscrews so they require a screwdriver to remove it. That's a little bit of a hassle, but you shouldn't need to remove the drive bay very often, if at all.

The bundle of wires here, are for the two USB and Firewire ports located in the front of the case. One thing I found odd is that the speaker was just sliding around inside of the case. It was not ever mounted, and I haven't yet to find a place to mount it.

This 4-pin 12volt power plug needs to be plugged in to your power supply, to supply power to the two case fans.

These are all the wires that connect to your motherboard. Like, HDD lights, reset switch, power switch, ect.. Also bundled with these wires you will find a wire that looks very different than the others. This wire is the tempeture probe. It's flat so that you can place it under your heatsink to get the tempeture of your cpu. The temperature would be displayed in the built in digital display in the front of the case.

Conclusion
A very nice and unique case, but it's not without its flaws. The inside of the case had a few sharp corner edges, but they are hard to find. The 3.5" drive bays are removable, but they don't have thumbscrews so they require a screwdriver to remove it. The case doesn't have a removable motherboard tray. If your a hardware freak like me and always changing hardware out, then this is a downside. Some of the big advantages to this case is the digital temperature display, stealth CD-ROM covers, bright LED lights, tooless side panels, and the two controllable case fans. For the price of this case, I really don't think you can beat it. If you don't need a removable motherboard tray, and don't need a removable 3.5" drive bays, then this case should be taken under your consideration.

We would like to thank ExoticPC.com for providing us this case to review!

Pros:

Digital temperature display

Bright LED's

Two case fans, which are controllable by a switch on the front of the case